Our understanding of Ghana and how it shapes our identities is influenced by:

• the Ghanaian food and drink we were raised on alongside Western staples,

• the indigenous music we experience at family functions,

• the colourful symbology and meaning embedded in our fabrics, 

• our understanding (or lack of) of our ancestor’s Mother Tongues, and

• those periodic visits to the Motherland. 

We straddle two worlds - one where our ability to belong is measured against perceived markers of being ‘enough’ - whether that is as a Ghanaian or as British, while also having to navigate the cultural and geographical dislocation and isolation that can sometimes come from being a child of the diaspora.

Ekow Eshun, Frances Mensah Williams CBE, and more recently Elvin James Mensah, Krystle Zara Appiah, and Marie-Claire Amuah are just some of the examples of British-Ghanaian authors who, through their writing, create spaces for us to interrogate what it means to be Ghanaian. 

For writers like Ekow, the exploration of identity is central to his autobiographical book: ‘Black Gold of the Sun: Searching for Home in England and Africa’ (2005). In it, the reader journeys with him on his return visit to Ghana in 2001, after a 27-year gap. Although born in Britain in 1968, Ekow spends some of his formative years in Ghana until political unrest uproots his family to London. 

But the violence doesn’t stop when they reach London, it just takes on a different form - one that forces Ekow to confront his identity - through the lens of race and colour.

What I liked about this book is how much of Ekow’s relationship with Ghana and his identity as a British Ghanaian resonated with my own.

Ekow experiences racism and being othered as the child of migrants in the UK but also feels othered when he returns to Ghana as an adult. Even as he embarks on his search for ‘home’ when he returns to Ghana, that question mark around his identity persists - first when a fellow plane passenger asks him ‘where he is from’, but also later when his understanding of his identity is shaken with the revelation that an ancestor was involved in the slave trade.

Despite being published 20 years ago, this book is as relevant today as it was back then in exploring the internal conflict that many Ghanaians in the diaspora experience when aligning who they are with perceptions of what they think Ghana is and who they feel they should be.  

Nationhood and belonging 

For some of the writers I have mentioned, Ghana represents a place of safety, nourishment, rejuvenation and renewal. 

We see this arc played out with Efe from Krystle’s debut novel ‘Rootless’ (2023) who returns to Ghana – her birthplace, and home to family and friends - as her escape from the challenges of UK living, and the turbulence within her marriage. 

Ghana is where Efe can regroup, collect her thoughts and be her unfettered self. It is also the place of positive memories and where she evolves as an artist.  

We see a similar journey for South Londoner Stella in ‘One For Sorrow, Two For Joy’ (2023) by Marie-Claire Amuah, when she visits Ghana for her brother’s wedding. In both novels, there’s a warmth associated with Ghana and a sense that they both feel at home - that they belong - in a way that is not communicated as fondly in their relationship with UK life. 

In both novels, the authors guide the reader through aspects of their cultures,and traditions by identifying with key cultural markers or symbols often attached to Ghana. The immediate symbols that come to mind when thinking of Ghana are its iconic flag, references to President Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Kente cloth, or our music and food.

Both Krystle and Marie-Claire are intentional about embracing these symbols of Ghana’s heritage in their writing with both saying in podcast interviews with AKADi Magazine how important it was in their writing to ensure these portrayals of Ghana were accurate.  

Marie-Claire explained that one of her best experiences was learning more about the marriage ceremony, which features in the book. She also commented on visiting Bonwire - the Akan home of Kente weaving in the Ashanti Region - to understand the process behind this craft and even participated in weaving a segment of this celebrated fabric.

For many Ghanaians living in the diaspora, being able to connect with Ghana in this way creates that sense of safety and belonging when the othering, racism and erasure, that often accompanies life in the Diaspora, becomes too pervasive. 

But this is not everyone’s experience of Ghana. Sometimes those symbols associated with belonging do not always mitigate the real life experience of finding belonging or identity in Ghana - as Ekow reflects in his book.

For me, it is this space of tension that I believe some of us have used to cultivate and redefine how we see Ghana and how we see ourselves as Ghanaians. 

Scope for change 

I see this shift played out in how writers like Frances Mensah Williams seek to change single-story depictions of what it means to be Ghanaian in her writing. Her stories do not depict war, or poverty but offer a more nuanced and cosmopolitan portrayal of Ghanaians - particularly of women.

Lead female characters such as Faye Bonsu, the central character in ‘From Pasta to Pigfoot’ (2015) and in the sequel ‘From Pasta to Pigfoot: Second Helpings (2016), is a 20-something British-Ghanaian woman, living in an affluent part of London, with her father, a doctor, whose main life concern is finding happiness in her career and love life. 

Meanwhile, best friends Maku, Lyla and Theresa - characters in Frances’s 2020 book: ‘Imperfect Arrangements’ are educated, high achievers, who live comfortable lifestyles in cosmopolitan Accra. Their stories centre around how they navigate their various romantic relationships: Maku wanting the white wedding, Lyla desperate to be a mother after six years of marriage, and Theresa who notices fault lines in her marriage after her and her husband relocate from the UK to Ghana. Their intertwined stories explore a more nuanced portrayal of Ghanaian women and opens up the space to explore a more contemporary and maybe more honest portrayal of Ghana and Ghanaians (good and bad).  

Tackling taboo topics 

Debut authors like Elvin James Mensah and Krystle Zara Appiah move that dial even further by exploring topics such as depression, suicide, homosexuality and abortion that some may consider to be taboo, ‘unGhanaian’ or exports of the West.

Elvin is an openly gay writer, whose debut novel  ‘Small Joys’ (2023), centres on aspects of himself in the lead character Harley. Harley is also British-Ghanaian, gay and has had struggles with his mental health. And although his sexuality is not the dominant element in this novel, (it is more focussed around celebrating the small wins in life and valuing platonic relationship bonds), it feels like Elvin creates space and validation for Ghanaians of all sexualities to exist - by creating the character of Harley. 

Marriage and motherhood 

Similarly in Krystle’s debut novel ‘Rootless’ (2023), she tackles the challenges of marriage, and motherhood through the lens of Efe. Efe has never wanted children, but accidentally becomes pregnant twice and struggles to operate within a culture/society that sees motherhood as the accepted norm for all women.

We see that despite her love for her husband Sam, their expectations for marriage are different and that tests their relationship and the future of their family unit.

In a podcast interview with AKADi Magazine, she said: “I am hoping that this is giving people more permission to talk about these topics. I think or I hope that we are creating a space where people can ask for help, or articulate that actually this isn't what they want and not be judged for wanting something that is not necessarily the standard or the norm or what you are taught to want.” 

In their different ways, the writers I have mentioned here hold a mirror up to society. Culture and heritage symbols commonly associated with Ghana will undoubtedly resonate positively with most of us when responding to the question of ‘What is Ghana’? And while these symbols create a shared understanding to that question, they can also limit the scope within which we are able to explore who we are. In some cases, the symbol of what Ghana is does not always match the reality on the ground, forcing those of us searching for identity to create a space where they belong.

By openly addressing themes that affect all of humanity in these books, and by positioning Ghanaian characters as leads in these stories, writers are reinforcing the fact that these stories are also our stories, and our experiences and should be seen as part of what adds to our identities as Ghanaians. 

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About Kirsty Abena Sɛwaa Osei-Bempong

Obsessed with Highlife music, avid bookworm with a passion for bouldering
I describe myself as an Anglo Asante raised in London but perpetually thinking of Ghana.
Reimagining Ghana means amplifying the aspects of our culture, traditions and the lives of our ancestors which showcase their relevance to contemporary life for Ghanaians globally.

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